At the July 5th Board of Supervisors meeting, the board approved the start of a drone program proposal from the Washington Sheriff’s Office and Washington Emergency Management. There were also discussions at the meeting that this proposed program could branch itself into other services like the Conversation Office.

The Washington County Riverboat Foundation awarded an $11,000 grant covering approximately half the program’s cost.

The model of drone that the program would use would be the DJI Mavic, which would be capable of sending a live feed to a laptop. The uses outlined by the two agencies for these drones are related to search & rescue, locating suspects on foot, flood evaluations, and structure fire readings. Pilots for the program will have to take a course to receive the proper certification to pilot these drones.